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Shakespeare, William: Hamlet, Prinz von Dannemark (Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Detail) in German)

Portre of Shakespeare, William

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Detail) (English)


ACT III.

SCENE I.

A room in the castle.

Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN



KING CLAUDIUS

And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

ROSENCRANTZ

He does confess he feels himself distracted;
But from what cause he will by no means speak.

GUILDENSTERN

Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Did he receive you well?

ROSENCRANTZ

Most like a gentleman.

GUILDENSTERN

But with much forcing of his disposition.

ROSENCRANTZ

Niggard of question; but, of our demands,
Most free in his reply.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Did you assay him?
To any pastime?

ROSENCRANTZ

Madam, it so fell out, that certain players
We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him;
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: they are about the court,
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.

LORD POLONIUS

'Tis most true:
And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties
To hear and see the matter.

KING CLAUDIUS

With all my heart; and it doth much content me
To hear him so inclined.
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.

ROSENCRANTZ

We shall, my lord.

Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

KING CLAUDIUS

Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia:
Her father and myself, lawful espials,
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If 't be the affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

I shall obey you.
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.

OPHELIA

Madam, I wish it may.

Exit QUEEN GERTRUDE

LORD POLONIUS

Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves.

To OPHELIA

Read on this book;
That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,--
'Tis too much proved--that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.

KING CLAUDIUS

[Aside] O, 'tis too true!
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word:
O heavy burthen!

LORD POLONIUS

I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.

Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS

Enter HAMLET

HAMLET

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

OPHELIA

Good my lord,
How does your honour for this many a day?

HAMLET

I humbly thank you; well, well, well.

OPHELIA

My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;
I pray you, now receive them.

HAMLET

No, not I;
I never gave you aught.

OPHELIA

My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,
Take these again; for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.

HAMLET

Ha, ha! are you honest?

OPHELIA

My lord?

HAMLET

Are you fair?

OPHELIA

What means your lordship?

HAMLET

That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should
admit no discourse to your beauty.

OPHELIA

Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than
with honesty?

HAMLET

Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the
force of honesty can translate beauty into his
likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the
time gives it proof. I did love you once.

OPHELIA

Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

HAMLET

You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot
so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of
it: I loved you not.

OPHELIA

I was the more deceived.

HAMLET

Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
were better my mother had not borne me: I am very
proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at
my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,
imagination to give them shape, or time to act them
in. What should such fellows as I do crawling
between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,
all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.
Where's your father?

OPHELIA

At home, my lord.

HAMLET

Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the
fool no where but in's own house. Farewell.

OPHELIA

O, help him, you sweet heavens!

HAMLET

If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for
thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a
nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs
marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough
what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,
and quickly too. Farewell.

OPHELIA

O heavenly powers, restore him!

HAMLET

I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God
has given you one face, and you make yourselves
another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and
nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness
your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath
made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:
those that are married already, all but one, shall
live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a
nunnery, go.

Exit

OPHELIA

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Re-enter KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS

KING CLAUDIUS

Love! his affections do not that way tend;
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul,
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger: which for to prevent,
I have in quick determination
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England,
For the demand of our neglected tribute
Haply the seas and countries different
With variable objects shall expel
This something-settled matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?

LORD POLONIUS

It shall do well: but yet do I believe
The origin and commencement of his grief
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia!
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please;
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief: let her be round with him;
And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him, or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.

KING CLAUDIUS

It shall be so:
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.

Exeunt





ACT III. SCENE II. A hall in the castle.

Enter HAMLET and Players

HAMLET

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

First Player

I warrant your honour.

HAMLET

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
word to the action; with this special o'erstep not
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
censure of the which one must in your allowance
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be
players that I have seen play, and heard others
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,
that, neither having the accent of Christians nor
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of
nature's journeymen had made men and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

First Player

I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us,
sir.

HAMLET

O, reform it altogether. And let those that play
your clowns speak no more than is set down for them;
for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to
set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh
too; though, in the mean time, some necessary
question of the play be then to be considered:
that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition
in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.

Exeunt Players

Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN

How now, my lord! I will the king hear this piece of work?

LORD POLONIUS

And the queen too, and that presently.

HAMLET

Bid the players make haste.

Exit POLONIUS

Will you two help to hasten them?

ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN

We will, my lord.

Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

HAMLET

What ho! Horatio!

Enter HORATIO

HORATIO

Here, sweet lord, at your service.

HAMLET

Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.

HORATIO

O, my dear lord,--

HAMLET

Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
There is a play to-night before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.

HORATIO

Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

HAMLET

They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.

Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others

KING CLAUDIUS

How fares our cousin Hamlet?

HAMLET

Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat
the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.

KING CLAUDIUS

I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.

HAMLET

No, nor mine now.

To POLONIUS

My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?

LORD POLONIUS

That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.

HAMLET

What did you enact?

LORD POLONIUS

I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
Capitol; Brutus killed me.

HAMLET

It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf
there. Be the players ready?

ROSENCRANTZ

Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

HAMLET

No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.

LORD POLONIUS

[To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?

HAMLET

Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

Lying down at OPHELIA's feet

OPHELIA

No, my lord.

HAMLET

I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

Do you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIA

I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET

That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

OPHELIA

What is, my lord?

HAMLET

Nothing.

OPHELIA

You are merry, my lord.

HAMLET

Who, I?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.

OPHELIA

Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

HAMLET

So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches,
then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with
the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O,
the hobby-horse is forgot.'

Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters

Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love

Exeunt

OPHELIA

What means this, my lord?

HAMLET

Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.

OPHELIA

Belike this show imports the argument of the play.

Enter Prologue

HAMLET

We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot
keep counsel; they'll tell all.

OPHELIA

Will he tell us what this show meant?

HAMLET

Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be not you
ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.

OPHELIA

You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.

Prologue

For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.

Exit

HAMLET

Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

OPHELIA

'Tis brief, my lord.

HAMLET

As woman's love.

Enter two Players, King and Queen

Player King

Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been,
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

Player Queen

So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
For women's fear and love holds quantity;
In neither aught, or in extremity.
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;
And as my love is sized, my fear is so:
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

Player King

'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, beloved; and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou--

Player Queen

O, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst!
None wed the second but who kill'd the first.

HAMLET

[Aside] Wormwood, wormwood.

Player Queen

The instances that second marriage move
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:
A second time I kill my husband dead,
When second husband kisses me in bed.

Player King

I do believe you think what now you speak;
But what we do determine oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth, but poor validity;
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
Most necessary 'tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.
But, orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

Player Queen

Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!
Sport and repose lock from me day and night!
To desperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
Meet what I would have well and it destroy!
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!

HAMLET

If she should break it now!

Player King

'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.

Sleeps

Player Queen

Sleep rock thy brain,
And never come mischance between us twain!

Exit

HAMLET

Madam, how like you this play?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

The lady protests too much, methinks.

HAMLET

O, but she'll keep her word.

KING CLAUDIUS

Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't?

HAMLET

No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence
i' the world.

KING CLAUDIUS

What do you call the play?

HAMLET

The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play
is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is
the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see
anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: but what o'
that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it
touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our
withers are unwrung.

Enter LUCIANUS

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.

OPHELIA

You are as good as a chorus, my lord.

HAMLET

I could interpret between you and your love, if I
could see the puppets dallying.

OPHELIA

You are keen, my lord, you are keen.

HAMLET

It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.

OPHELIA

Still better, and worse.

HAMLET

So you must take your husbands. Begin, murderer;
pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come:
'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.'

LUCIANUS

Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;
Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magic and dire property,
On wholesome life usurp immediately.

Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears

HAMLET

He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His
name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in
choice Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer
gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

OPHELIA

The king rises.

HAMLET

What, frighted with false fire!

QUEEN GERTRUDE

How fares my lord?

LORD POLONIUS

Give o'er the play.

KING CLAUDIUS

Give me some light: away!

All

Lights, lights, lights!

Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO

HAMLET

Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers-- if
the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two
Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a
fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

HORATIO

Half a share.

HAMLET

A whole one, I.
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very--pajock.

HORATIO

You might have rhymed.

HAMLET

O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a
thousand pound. Didst perceive?

HORATIO

Very well, my lord.

HAMLET

Upon the talk of the poisoning?

HORATIO

I did very well note him.

HAMLET

Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!
For if the king like not the comedy,
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.
Come, some music!

Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

GUILDENSTERN

Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

HAMLET

Sir, a whole history.

GUILDENSTERN

The king, sir,--

HAMLET

Ay, sir, what of him?

GUILDENSTERN

Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.

HAMLET

With drink, sir?

GUILDENSTERN

No, my lord, rather with choler.

HAMLET

Your wisdom should show itself more richer to
signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him
to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far
more choler.

GUILDENSTERN

Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and
start not so wildly from my affair.

HAMLET

I am tame, sir: pronounce.

GUILDENSTERN

The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of
spirit, hath sent me to you.

HAMLET

You are welcome.

GUILDENSTERN

Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right
breed. If it shall please you to make me a
wholesome answer, I will do your mother's
commandment: if not, your pardon and my return
shall be the end of my business.

HAMLET

Sir, I cannot.

GUILDENSTERN

What, my lord?

HAMLET

Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but,
sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command;
or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no
more, but to the matter: my mother, you say,--

ROSENCRANTZ

Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck her
into amazement and admiration.

HAMLET

O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But
is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's
admiration? Impart.

ROSENCRANTZ

She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you
go to bed.

HAMLET

We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have
you any further trade with us?

ROSENCRANTZ

My lord, you once did love me.

HAMLET

So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.

ROSENCRANTZ

Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you
do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if
you deny your griefs to your friend.

HAMLET

Sir, I lack advancement.

ROSENCRANTZ

How can that be, when you have the voice of the king
himself for your succession in Denmark?

HAMLET

Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,'--the proverb
is something musty.

Re-enter Players with recorders

O, the recorders! let me see one. To withdraw with
you:--why do you go about to recover the wind of me,
as if you would drive me into a toil?

GUILDENSTERN

O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too
unmannerly.

HAMLET

I do not well understand that. Will you play upon
this pipe?

GUILDENSTERN

My lord, I cannot.

HAMLET

I pray you.

GUILDENSTERN

Believe me, I cannot.

HAMLET

I do beseech you.

GUILDENSTERN

I know no touch of it, my lord.

HAMLET

'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with
your lingers and thumb, give it breath with your
mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.
Look you, these are the stops.

GUILDENSTERN

But these cannot I command to any utterance of
harmony; I have not the skill.

HAMLET

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know
my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my
mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to
the top of my compass: and there is much music,
excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot
you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you
cannot play upon me.

Enter POLONIUS

God bless you, sir!

LORD POLONIUS

My lord, the queen would speak with you, and
presently.

HAMLET

Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?

LORD POLONIUS

By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.

HAMLET

Methinks it is like a weasel.

LORD POLONIUS

It is backed like a weasel.

HAMLET

Or like a whale?

LORD POLONIUS

Very like a whale.

HAMLET

Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool
me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.

LORD POLONIUS

I will say so.

HAMLET

By and by is easily said.

Exit POLONIUS

Leave me, friends.

Exeunt all but HAMLET

Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Let me be cruel, not unnatural:
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
How in my words soever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!

Exit



Hamlet, Prinz von Dannemark (German)

Dritter Aufzug. Erste Scene.

(Der Pallast. Der König, die Königin, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosenkranz,
Güldenstern, und Herren vom Hofe treten auf.)



König.
Ihr habt also nicht von ihm herausbringen können, was die Ursache
ist, warum er in den schönsten Tagen seines Lebens in diese
stürmische und Gefahr-drohende Raserey gefallen?

Rosenkranz.
Er gesteht, daß er sich in einem ausserordentlichen Gemüths-
Zustande fühle; aber was die Ursache davon sey, darüber will er
sich schlechterdings nicht herauslassen.

Güldenstern.
Auch giebt er nirgends keine Gelegenheit, wo man ihn ausholen
könnte, und wenn man würklich ganz nahe dabey zu seyn glaubt, ihn
zum Geständniß seines wahren Zustands zu bringen, so hat er, seiner
vorgeblichen Tollheit ungeachtet, doch List genug, sich immer
wieder aus der Schlinge zu ziehen.

Königin.
Empfieng er euch freundlich?

Rosenkranz.
Mit vieler Höflichkeit.

Güldenstern.
Doch so, daß man die Gewalt die er seinem Humor anthun mußte, sehr
deutlich merken konnte.

Rosenkranz.
Mit Fragen war er sehr frey, aber überaus zurükhaltend, wenn er auf
die unsrigen antworten sollte.

Königin.
Schluget ihr ihm keinen Zeitvertreib vor?

Rosenkranz.
Gnädigste Frau, es begegnete von ungefehr, daß wir unterwegs auf
eine Schauspieler-Gesellschaft stiessen; von dieser sagten wir ihm,
und es schien, als ob er eine Art von Freude darüber hätte: Sie
befinden sich würklich bey Hofe, und (wie ich glaube,) haben sie
bereits Befehl, diese Nacht vor ihm zu spielen.

Polonius.
Es ist nichts gewissers, und er ersucht Eure Majestäten, Zuschauer
dabey abzugeben.

König.
Von Herzen gern, es erfreut mich ungemein, zu hören, daß er so gut
disponiert ist. Erhaltet ihn bey dieser Laune, meine guten Freunde,
und seyd darauf bedacht, daß er immer mehr Geschmak an dergleichen
Zeitvertreib finde.

Rosenkranz.
Wir wollen nichts ermangeln lassen, Gnädigster Herr.

(Sie gehen ab.)

König.
Liebste Gertrude, verlaßt ihr uns auch; wir haben heimliche
Anstalten gemacht, daß Hamlet hieher komme, damit er Ophelien, als
ob es von ungefehr geschähe, hier antreffe. Ihr Vater und ich
wollen einen solchen Plaz nehmen, daß wir, ungesehn, Zeugen von
allem was zwischen ihnen vorgehen wird, seyn, und also durch uns
selbst urtheilen können, ob die Liebe die Ursache seines Trübsinns
ist oder nicht.

Königin.
Ich gehorche euch; und an meinem Theil, Ophelia, wünsch' ich, daß
eure Reizungen die glükliche Ursach von Hamlets Zustande seyn mögen:
Denn das würde mir Hoffnung machen, daß eure Tugend ihn, zu euer
beyder Ehre, wieder auf den rechten Weg bringen würde.

Ophelia.
Gnädigste Frau, ich wünsch' es so.

(Die Königin geht ab.)

Polonius.
Ophelia, geht ihr hier auf und ab--Gnädigster Herr, wenn es
beliebig ist, wollen wir uns hier verbergen--

(Zu Ophelia.)

Thut, als ob ihr in diesem Buche leset; damit das Ansehn einer
geistlichen Übung eure Einsamkeit beschönige. Es begegnet nur gar
zu oft, daß wir mit der andächtigsten Mine und der frömmsten
Gebehrde an dem Teufel selbst saugen.

König (vor sich.)
Das ist nur gar zu wahr. Was für einen scharfen Geissel-Streich
giebt diese Rede meinem Gewissen! Die Wangen einer Hure durch
Kunst mit betrügerischen Rosen bemahlt, sind nicht häßlicher unter
ihrer Schminke, als meine That unter der schönen Larve meiner Worte--
O schwere Bürde!

Polonius.
Ich hör' ihn kommen; wir wollen uns entfernen, Gnädigster Herr.

(Alle, bis auf Ophelia gehen ab.)






Zweyte Scene.
(Hamlet tritt auf, mit sich selbst redend.)


Hamlet.
Seyn oder nicht seyn--Das ist die Frage--Ob es einem edeln Geist
anständiger ist, sich den Beleidigungen des Glüks geduldig zu
unterwerfen, oder seinen Anfällen entgegen zu stehen, und durch
einen herzhaften Streich sie auf einmal zu endigen? Was ist
sterben?--Schlafen--das ist alles--und durch einen guten Schlaf
sich auf immer vom Kopfweh und allen andern Plagen, wovon unser
Fleisch Erbe ist, zu erledigen, ist ja eine Glükseligkeit, die man
einem andächtiglich zubeten sollte--Sterben--Schlafen--Doch
vielleicht ist es was mehr--wie wenn es träumen wäre?--Da stekt der
Haken--Was nach dem irdischen Getümmel in diesem langen Schlaf des
Todes für Träume folgen können, das ist es, was uns stuzen machen
muß. Wenn das nicht wäre, wer würde die Mißhandlungen und Staupen-
Schläge der Zeit, die Gewaltthätigkeiten des Unterdrükers, die
verächtlichen Kränkungen des Stolzen, die Quaal verschmähter Liebe,
die Schicanen der Justiz, den Übermuth der Grossen, ertragen, oder
welcher Mann von Verdienst würde sich von einem Elenden, dessen
Geburt oder Glük seinen ganzen Werth ausmacht, mit Füssen stossen
lassen, wenn ihm frey stühnde, mit einem armen kleinen Federmesser
sich Ruhe zu verschaffen? Welcher Taglöhner würde unter Ächzen
und Schwizen ein mühseliges Leben fortschleppen wollen?--Wenn die
Furcht vor etwas nach dem Tode--wenn dieses unbekannte Land, aus
dem noch kein Reisender zurük gekommen ist, unsern Willen nicht
betäubte, und uns riehte, lieber die Übel zu leiden, die wir
kennen, als uns freywillig in andre zu stürzen, die uns desto
furchtbarer scheinen, weil sie uns unbekannt sind. Und so macht
das Gewissen uns alle zu Memmen; so entnervet ein blosser Gedanke
die Stärke des natürlichen Abscheues vor Schmerz und Elend, und die
grössesten Thaten, die wichtigsten Entwürfe werden durch diese
einzige Betrachtung in ihrem Lauf gehemmt, und von der Ausführung
zurükgeschrekt--Aber sachte!--wie? Die schöne Ophelia?--Nymphe,
erinnre dich aller meiner Sünden in deinem Gebete.

Ophelia.
Mein Gnädiger Prinz, wie habt ihr euch diese vielen Tage über
befunden?

Hamlet.
Ich danke euch demüthigst; wohl--

Ophelia.
Gnädiger Herr, ich habe verschiedne Sachen zum Andenken von euch,
die ich euch gerne zurükgegeben hätte; ich bitte euer Gnaden, sie
bey dieser Gelegenheit zurük zu nehmen.

Hamlet.
Ich? ich wißte nicht, daß ich euch jemals was gegeben hätte.

Ophelia.
Ihr wißt es gar wohl, Gnädiger Herr, und daß ihr eure Geschenke mit
Worten, von so süssem Athem zusammengesezt, begleitet habt, daß sie
dadurch einen noch grössern Werth erhielten. Da sich dieser Parfüm
verlohren hat, so nehmt sie wieder zurük. Geschenke verliehren für
ein edles Gemüth ihren Werth, wenn das Herz des Gebers geändert ist.

Hamlet.
Ha, ha! Seyd ihr tugendhaft?

Ophelia.
Gnädiger Herr--

Hamlet.
Seyd ihr schön?

Ophelia.
Was sollen diese Fragen bedeuten?

Hamlet.
Das will ich euch sagen. Wenn ihr tugendhaft und schön seyd, so
soll eure Tugend nicht zugeben, daß man eurer Schönheit
Schmeicheleyen vorschwaze.

Ophelia.
Machen Schönheit und Tugend nicht eine gute Gesellschaft mit
einander aus, Gnädiger Herr?

Hamlet.
Nicht die beste; denn es wird allemal der Schönheit leichter seyn,
die Tugend in eine Kupplerin zu verwandeln, als der Tugend, die
Schönheit sich ähnlich zu machen. Das war ehmals ein paradoxer Saz,
aber in unsern Tagen ist seine Wahrheit unstreitig--Es war eine
Zeit, da ich euch liebte.

Ophelia.
In der That; Gnädiger Herr, ihr machtet mich's glauben.

Hamlet.
Ihr hättet mir nicht glauben sollen. Denn Tugend kan sich unserm
alten Stamme nie so gut einpfropfen, daß wir nicht noch immer einen
Geschmak von ihm behalten sollten. Ich liebte euch nicht.

Ophelia.
Desto schlimmer, daß ich so betrogen wurde.

Hamlet.
Geh in ein Nonnenkloster. Warum wolltest du eine Mutter von
Sündern werden? Ich bin selbst keiner von den Schlimmsten; und
doch könnt' ich mich solcher Dinge anklagen, daß es besser wäre,
meine Mutter hätte mich nicht zur Welt gebracht. Ich bin sehr
stolz, rachgierig, ehrsüchtig, zu mehr Sünden aufgelegt, als ich
Gedanken habe sie zu namsen, Einbildungs-Kraft sie auszubilden, und
Zeit sie zu vollbringen. Wozu sollen solche Bursche, wie ich bin,
zwischen Himmel und Erde herumkriechen? Wir sind alle ausgemachte
Taugenichts; traue keinem von uns--Geh in ein Nonnen-Kloster--Wo
ist euer Vater?

Ophelia.
Zu Hause, Gnädiger Herr.

Hamlet.
Laß die Thür hinter ihm zuschliessen, damit er den Narren nirgends
als in seinem eignen Hause spielen könne--Adieu.

Ophelia.
O hilf ihm, Gütiger Himmel!

Hamlet.
Wenn du einen Mann nimmst, so will ich dir diesen Fluch zur Mitgift
geben--Sey so keusch wie Eis, so rein wie Schnee, du wirst doch der
Verläumdung nicht entgehen--Geh in ein Nonnen-Kloster--Adieu--Oder
wenn du es ja nicht vermeiden kanst, so nimm einen Narren; denn
gescheidte Leute wissen gar zu wohl, was für Ungeheuer ihr aus
ihnen macht.--In ein Nonnen-Kloster, sag ich und das nur bald:
Adieu.

Ophelia.
Ihr himmlischen Mächte, stellet ihn wieder her!

Hamlet.
Ich habe auch von eurer Mahler-Kunst gehört; eine feine Kunst!
Gott hat euch ein Gesicht gegeben, und ihr macht euch ein anders.
Ihr verhunzt unserm Herrn Gott sein Geschöpf durch eure tändelhafte
Manieren, durch eure Ziererey, euer affektiertes Stottern, euern
tanzenden Gang, eure kindische Launen; und seyd unwissend genug
euch auf diese Armseligkeiten noch wer weiß wie viel einzubilden.
Geh, geh, ich will nichts mehr davon, es hat mich toll gemacht.
Ich meyne, keine Heyrathen mehr! Diejenigen die nun einmal
verheyrathet sind, alle bis an einen, mögen leben; die übrigen
sollen bleiben wie sie sind. In ein Nonnen-Kloster, geh.

(Hamlet geht ab.)

Ophelia.
O was für ein edles Gemüth ist hier zu Grunde gerichtet! Das Aug
eines Hofmanns, die Zunge eines Gelehrten, der Degen eines Helden!
Die Erwartung, die blühende Hoffnung des Staats! Der Spiegel,
worinn sich jeder besah, der gefallen wollte; das Modell von allem
was groß, schön und liebenswürdig ist, gänzlich, gänzlich
zernichtet! Ich unglükselige! Die einst den Honig seiner
Schmeicheleyen, die Musik seiner Gelübde so begierig in mich sog;
und izt sehen muß, wie der schönste Geist, gleich einem verstimmten
Glokenspiel, lauter falsche, mißklingende Töne von sich giebt, und
diese unvergleichliche Tugend-Blühte in finstrer Schwermuth
hinwelkt! O! wehe mir! daß ich leben mußte, um zu sehen, was ich
gesehen habe.



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